Storm Front

This is the first book in the Dresen Files series. I enjoyed it very much. The main character has a dry, sarcastic sense of humor and I always love that! I look forward to reading more of the books in this series.

Highly recommended: 4 out of 5.

The Wedding Officer

My mom picked this book up on a whim at Wal*mart and she loved it so much, she sent it to me! I read this while relaxing in Spain and it was WONDERFUL!! A lovely look at the Naples area of Allied-occupied Italy during World War II: the lifestyle, the food (or lack thereof) and the people. Oh, and a sweet love story is included too!

Highly recommended: 4 out of 5.

The Twilight Saga

I know I reviewed Twilight last year, but I'm going to lump my reviews of the 3 other books in the series into one.

New Moon was a good, quick read. I enjoyed the development of Jacob's character and I enjoyed the twist to the series found in this book.

Eclipse was pretty good, too. I particularly liked the development of the love triangle between Edward, Bella and Jacob. By the end of this book, I was definitely on Team Jacob!

I found Breaking Dawn to be disturbing from the outset and it progressively became more so as it went along. In the end, I chose not to finish this book because I was unhappy with the direction the book was going and, according to Miss Meyer's vampire and werewolf "rules", there could be no going back. She took a major departure from her previous books and it didn't go well, to say the least.

New Moon: 3 out of 5
Eclipse: 4 out of 5
Breaking Dawn: did not finish

The Cubicle Next Door

Another book by Siri Mitchell that caught my attention because of its ties to the Air Force. I found the main character's militant "green attitude" to be very off-putting. The main male character turns on the water to start washing dishes and she immediately turns it off telling him "most people use more water than they need" (meanwhile, it takes 7-8 minutes for the water to get hot in my kitchen and I will NOT wash dishes in cold water - that is just gross). That is just a minor example of her anti-people/pro-planet attitude that pervades the entire book.

I was also put off that her choice to not engage in certain pre-marital behaviors had nothing at all to do with God (this is "Christian" chick-lit, after all), but everything to do with not wanting to repeat her own mother's mistakes.

It almost seems to me that, after reading 2 of Ms. Mitchell's books, that she thinks that having her characters go to church once in a while qualifies her books to be on the shelf with other Christian titles. I don't think that is right and, even though I own a few more of her titles, I won't be reading any more of her work.

Bleh: 2 out of 5.

My Sister's Keeper

I can certainly see why this book has generated so much controversy. The topic of "designer babies" is one that we will be facing for many years to come, both people doing as the family in the book (designing their baby to save the life of their already existing child) and people who simply want to dictate gender and traits of their children rather than leaving it in God's hands where it belongs.

I did think this book was pretty well written right up until the last few pages which felt like a complete cop-out on the part of the author.

It was okay: 3 out of 5.

The Secret Life of Becky Miller

This book was okay. I found myself skipping over the heroine's fantasies involving her "super-hero" life, though. They were a little too outside the realm of reality (yeah, I know, they were *fantasies*!) and there really wasn't anything so wrong with her real life to warrant such a vivid fantasy life.

It was okay: 3 out of 5.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Wow. Um. I don't really know what to say abou this book except to say that it helped to solidify my feeling that I'm just not a hard-core science fiction fan. I think the problem stems from the fact that almost everything outside the Trek universe is so pessimistic when it comes to the possible futures of humankind. I really don't want to read any more about how we've managed to either (a) blow each other up or (b) create some super-nasty virus that kills almost everyone. I think I'll stick to the fantasy genre from that section of the bookstore from now on.

Bleh: 2 out of 5.